


Cookie Comradery

by predilection



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 23:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9630509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/predilection/pseuds/predilection
Summary: All Kendall wants is some peace and quiet so she can focus on building dino chargers. Unfortunately for her, the rangers have decided that this is the perfect time to have, of all things, a cookie baking contest.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is Kendall-centric fluff because I think she deserves all the fluff.
> 
> I started writing this in the spring of 2015 so this story takes place very early in the series before both Phillip and Ivan are introduced.

It's the kind of day Kendall dislikes -- one with too many things to get done and too few hours to do them in. She has meetings to attend, paperwork to submit, and dino chargers to finish. 

She ends up working in the museum six hours longer than she planned to, so by the time she gets a chance to work on the dino chargers, it's almost nine in the evening. Thus, it surprises her when she enters the base and hears loud chatter and laughter. It also makes her pinch the bridge of her nose in annoyance, because after a long hard day, all she wants is to finish the chargers as quickly as possible, and she needs peace and quiet to do that.

The base has a small kitchen, one she had built after they'd found Koda, and all the commotion seems to be coming from inside it. She's more frustrated than curious when she heads towards it to find out what's going on. 

The second she peers inside the kitchen, she has to take a deep breath to keep from shouting. Chase is stirring what looks like batter in a mixing bowl and, from the sounds of it, telling a story about skateboarding. Tyler is washing dishes -- a spatula and a measuring cup, she notices -- while Shelby sits on the counter next to him drying the dishes. Koda is eating something off a plate she can't quiet see from where she's standing, and Riley is laughing at what she guesses is the punchline to Chase's story as he takes the dishes from Shelby and puts them back where they came from in the cabinets and drawers. 

Kendall's hands find their way to her hips and her tone is harsh when she asks, "What are you all still doing here? Didn't I send you home?"

The cheer in the room dims as they all turn to stare at her in surprise. Koda recovers first and exclaims, "Cookies!" The plate he picks up off the counter and shows her has chocolate chip cookies on it, and judging by the smell, they're freshly baked.

"It's a team-bonding activity, Ms. Morgan," Riley explains.

"You should join us," Tyler says and the others nod their agreement with this idea.

Kendall sighs. She doesn't want to join them. She just wants to finish her work so she can go home and sleep.

Chase either ignores or doesn't notice her exasperation, because he grins at her and explains, "Tyler said he had the best cookie recipe ever. Little did he know that I, in fact, have the best cookie recipe ever."

"So Chase challenged me to a contest," Tyler adds. "We went out and bought ingredients, and now we're going to find out whose cookies really are the best. Koda's holding my batch. Chase is working on his now."

"I like contest," Koda declares cheerfully, shoving a whole cookie into his mouth.

"It's pretty great," Shelby agrees, reaching over to nab a cookie off the plate.

Kendall opens her mouth to say something about her need for a quiet work space that doesn't have five rangers making loud noises in earshot when Koda unexpectedly offers her the plate with Tyler's cookies on it. "Try cookie. Tastes good," he tells her.

She blinks down at the plate and finds that it's hard to stay upset when she's staring at cookies that both look and smell delicious. Her stomach chooses that moment to gurgle, reminding her that she missed dinner. She picks up a cookie.

The second she takes a bite out of it, she's pretty sure her eyes are rolling back because the cookie is really, _really_ good. It melts in her mouth and is the perfect blend of cookie and chocolate. 

Tyler must notice her reaction because he catches Chase's eye and says triumphantly, "Ha! I told you my cookies were the best!"

"Not so fast," Chase says, shoving two trays of his cookies into the oven. "You haven't tried mine yet!"

Kendall's early irritation eases even more as she takes a second one of Tyler's cookies and realizes that it's just as good as the first she tried. "Okay, you can stay," she tells them. "But you all need to leave once Chase's cookies are done. Except for you, of course, Koda."

Shelby grins at her then, but her smile is too bright a reaction to her begrudgingly letting them use the kitchen. She raises an eyebrow at her. Shelby shakes her head, and still smiling replies, "It's nothing."

Kendall's not sure what to make of that, so she takes another cookie and wonders what Tyler put in them to make them taste so incredible.

Shelby starts talking about a book she read recently about feathered dinosaurs, which somehow turns into a conversation about animals, which leads to Riley telling them about his pet dog named Rubik. As Kendall stands a few steps back from them, listening and munching on Tyler's cookies, it hits her that she's never heard the rangers talk so openly before, or if she has, she's tuned them out. She didn't even know Riley had a dog.

They start talking about pets. She learns that Chase's family back in New Zealand has a cat and that Shelby loves dogs. Then Shelby asks, "What about you, Ms. Morgan?"

"What about me?" she asks, wondering why she's suddenly being included in their conversation.

"Do you have any pets?" Shelby clarifies.

She looks genuinely curious, so Kendall replies, "As a matter of fact, I do."

"What?" Chase exclaims. "You have pets and you never told me?"

Kendall frowns and tells them, "I have a cat."

"No way," Tyler says, smiling. "That's awesome."

"What cat look like?" Koda asks.

Kendall pulls out her phone and brings up a photo of her cat, a tabby she got years ago from a neighbor, sleeping on her couch. She hands her phone to Koda. Riley peers over Koda's shoulder and the next thing she knows, everyone else in the kitchen is rushing over to look at her photo.

"Your cat's so cute!" Shelby coos.

"What's its name?" Riley asks. 

"Leia," Kendall replies. "I named her after the character from Star Wars."

"You've seen Star Wars?" Chase asks and his jaw falls open. "Will the wonders ever cease?"

Kendall rolls her eyes and he laughs.

She takes her phone back just as the oven timer sounds. Chase dons oven mitts and pulls two trays of delightfully smelling cookies out of the oven. Chase bats Shelby's hand away when she reaches for one. "Not until they cool," he says. 

As they wait, Tyler tells a story about how he used to try to nab food from his grandmother's kitchen as a kid and how she always caught him in the act. 

Without thinking twice about it, Kendall asks him, "What happened then?"

Tyler grins playfully as he replies, "Well, after she yelled at me, she usually gave me what I wanted."

"Speaking of what we all want," Chase cuts in smoothly, "my absolutely fabulous cookies are ready for your approval." He passes around a plate of them, and Kendall has to cover her mouth to keep from groaning as she takes her first bite. His cookies are also unbelievably tasty, though they're sweeter than Tyler's batch.

Chase is the picture of confidence when he asks, "So whose cookies were better?"

"They're both good, but I think I prefer Chase's," Riley says. "I like how sweet they are."

Shelby takes a moment to think about it. Then she glances over at Tyler and winces. "Sorry, I agree with Riley on this one."

Tyler pouts, but there's laughter in his eyes when he asks, "What about you, Koda?"

"Both cookies good," Koda says around a second one of Chase's cookies. "But I like Tyler's more."

"Then why are you eating all of mine?" Chase demands, but he, like Tyler, also looks like he's laughing so there's no heat to his words.

"There's one vote left," Tyler reminds them and it takes Kendall a second to figure out that they mean her. 

"I'm not part of this," she points out.

"What are you talking about?" Tyler replies easily. "You've been hanging out with us for half an hour."

With a start, she realizes that Tyler is right. She has been with them for a while. She tries to tell herself that she was just an outsider to their comradery, but then she remembers the way they had all crowded around her phone and how engrossed she had been in Tyler's story.

She doesn't know when it happened, but at some point, she'd become part of their baking contest. She swallows, feeling a lump in her throat.

"Ms. Morgan?" Tyler asks, concerned.

Kendall shakes her head to clear it. "Sorry, I was just thinking." She ignores the lump as much as she can as she considers the two different cookies. Though Chase's cookies were fantastic, just thinking about Tyler's cookies makes her mouth water. "Tyler's were superior," she answers finally.

Tyler raises his hands in the air and woops as Chase shakes his head at her. "And here I was starting to think you had taste."

Kendall sighs at him even though she isn't as exasperated as she seems. Chase hands Tyler the baking trays to be washed, and after he's cleaned them, Tyler hands the trays to Shelby for drying. Shelby frowns as she hands the trays to Riley and says, "It's a tie, so... I guess we're done here."

An uncomfortable silence follows her words and Kendall knows that she caused both the silence and discomfort by suggesting earlier they all pack up and leave once the contest was over. She finds that she's disappointed their baking is coming to an end, and she realizes that the only reason she's disappointed at all is because she was enjoying herself in a way she hadn't expected. 

The lump is still in her throat, and she clears her throat around it. "I know a gingerbread recipe..." she says, trailing off uncertainly.

For a moment, no one says anything, staring at her with wide eyes. 

Shelby recovers first. "Really?" she asks, and Kendall can hear how hopeful she sounds.

"It's an old Morgan family recipe my cousin Kendrix sent me," Kendall explains, feeling more confident now. She mentally takes stock of the ingredients she bought for the kitchen and the ones the rangers had to have bought to make their cookies, and comes up short. "We don't have any ginger though. Or molasses, nutmeg or cloves."

Tyler waves the keys to his jeep in the air and grins. "I can get them," he offers.

Koda glances back and forth between her and Tyler and then declares, "More cookies!"

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Riley agrees.

As Tyler, Koda, Riley and Shelby rush off to buy the ingredients she hastily listed on a sheet of paper, Chase pulls the mixing bowl he had been using down from where Riley had put it back in a cabinet. He hands it to her. It's stainless steel and she can make out a hazy version of her reflection at the bottom of it.

The critical part of herself asks her why she's baking when she has dino chargers to complete, but for once, she brushes that voice aside. She knows, deep down, that there are other things that are important, and she knows the dino chargers can wait one night.

She looks up to find Chase smiling at her, and his too-bright expression looks like the one Shelby was wearing earlier. "What?" she asks.

"You should hang out with us more often," he tells her quietly. 

"Then you should invite me," she quips, and though she sounds like she's joking, she thinks she'd like that.

"Deal," Chase says. He sounds happy about it, and he's still smiling at her. She can tell that he genuinely wants to spend more time with her outside of their ranger duties and it makes the lump in her throat feel like it's getting bigger.

She hastily turns away from him and blinks her eyes to clear them. She reaches for the measuring cup and the bag of flour to make her movement seem deliberate. She's not sure if it's because he noticed her reaction or not, but Chase asks teasingly, "Are you sure your cookies are any good? After all, you liked Tyler's cookies more than mine."

She huffs out an amused breath, and her eyes are dry when she turns back towards Chase. "Prepare to be amazed," she tells him and rolls up her sleeves.


End file.
